Porto 2-1 Shakhtar: ill discipline costs Shakhtar

September 14, 2011

The first half line-ups

Red cards for both centre-backs didn’t help the away side, but Porto were in charge for most of the game anyway.

Vitor Pereira is using the 4-3-3 system favoured by most of his predecessors. Kleber is Falcao’s replacement and James Rodriguez started on the left. Steven Defour played the right-sided midfield role.

A narrow scoreline, but Pereira won the tactical battle. Porto were in charge for most of the game – in addition to the goals, they missed a penalty – whilst Shakhtar’s goal came from a horrendous error from Helton, rather than good play from the away side. Porto were always likely to have the territorial advantage with Shakhtar playing on the counter, but here’s a figure that sums it up – Porto entered the attacking third 80 times, Shakhtar just 14.

Formation match-up

There were obvious individual battles across, the pitch, with the 4-3-3 v 4-2-3-1 battle meaning the midfield triangles were closely-aligned in the centre of midfield. With the potential for a midfield standoff, it was Porto who did more to create a fluid game. Fernando generally stayed in position, but the other two midfielders rotated, moved across the pitch and tried to find space to play passes. The fluidity of the Porto front three was impressive, a flexibility that was more evident later in Andre Villas Boas’ successful 2010/11 campaign.

There were essentially two key factors in this game – one that helped Porto get control of the match, and another that resulted in their second half dominance and the winning goal.

First, Joao Moutinho was very clever with his positioning. Shakhtar were playing a 4-2-3-1 that matched Porto’s 4-1-2-3 in the centre of midfield, and so, in theory, Fernandinho should have been closing Moutinho down. Moutinho took it upon himself to drop deeper and deeper in the game, however, and you could see Fernandinho’s reluctance to move up the pitch and shift Shakhtar into a 4-1-4-1 – Lucescu is a big fan of shape and structure. As a result, Moutinho often went free and dictated the game. He completed 77 passes, more than any other player.

Post-red card

The second factor was Shakhtar’s discipline. They conceded far too many fouls, and they were often crucial – one resulted in a penalty, another allowed Hulk to blast home a free-kick, and then Yaroslav Rakitskiy lunged in to pick up a straight red card for a poor tackle on Moutinho, Shakhtar’s tormentor. That occurred in the 40th minute, and Lusecu immediately brought off Eduardo to introduce another centre-back, Olexandr Kucher.

After half time, the sides adjusted to take account of the 11 v 10 situation. Pereira pushed Porto’s backline higher up, pushing Shakhtar further back into their own half. Furthermore, he told the full-backs to play very wide, stretching the play and increasing the active playing zone.

The average position of Jadson (8) between 45 and 60 minutes shows that he wasn't in a position to track Pereira (copyright: UEFA.com)

This combined with a Lucescu error to help Porto score the winning goal. Rather than telling Jadson to play as a right-winger after Eduardo’s departure, he was fielded as part-right-winger, part-central playmaker, in order to try and link the midfield with Luiz Adriano. It made sense in theory, but it meant that Alvaro Pereira got too much time down the flank, and was always in space. Porto’s most played pass was Moutinho to Pereira (18 times), and a forward run from Pereira created the goal – he motored forward unchecked, brought first Razvan Rat and then the centre-backs out of position, and James Rodriguez and Kleber found space for the crucial third goal.

Conclusion

Porto won the tactical battle. They initially got control of the game because of the flexibility in the middle allowing Moutinho to find space, and then they exploited Shakhtar being weak down the right by eventually playing the ball out to the left-back, Pereira.

another one of the countless pathetic losers who have used zonalmarking’s comment section to promote themselves. Always leave a short pointless comment, then the link. it’s becoming a classic really

Josef on September 14, 2011 at 4:59 pm

Great summation here.

What I’m wondering is what the knock-on effects might have been had Fernandinho closed down Moutinho further up the pitch. Seems to me that with Eduardo and Willian covering the fullbacks, Fernandinho’s partner on Defour, Jadson on Fernando and a spare man from the 4 v 3 still at the back, they would have been just fine if Fernandinho advanced. Prior to the red card, of course.

Or maybe Lusecu didn’t trust his centerbacks, as well he might not have given their indiscipline.

prof longhair on September 14, 2011 at 5:35 pm

Porto were certainly in charge, and they ought to have scored more (aside from Hulk’s missed penalty). Nevertheless this win should help everyone’s confidence.

Marco on September 14, 2011 at 7:12 pm

will you see Man City – Napoli tonight and make an article out of it?

Fuad on September 14, 2011 at 8:03 pm

Keep up the good work ZM. Of all your articles, I always look forward to the CL ones the most!

Kane Prior on September 14, 2011 at 10:04 pm

Porto – Great performance from porto, they played an attacking game and dominated. Moutinho as stated has a fantastic game (Xavi like) by dropping deep and helped fernando play out from the back (important as jadson stuck to him well). I do think that defour could have got forward more though as there was no sign of any attacking instinct from Shakhtar’s two DM’s, so he didnt have to worry about tracking runs. I would have liked to have seen him arriving in the penalty area when the ball was wide. I was really impressed with Hulk and Rodriguez, who i hadnt heard much of before but looks a talent. Im not convinced by kleber though, he doesnt look like replacing Falcao (so important to porto last year) he isnt strong enough and doesnt hold up play (important for midfield runners like defour) and doesnt look as good in the air as Falcao.

Shakhtar – They have quality FB’s but didnt get them forward enough, to help the wide midfielders, and also pin back portos wingers into deep positions. Mkhitaryan doesnt look good enough on the ball, he should have started attacks from deep but constantly lost the ball stupidly. Fernandinho didnt get forward enough, as most people have said he could have pushed up to mark moutinho without much problems really, but the bigger mistake was that this lost Shakhtar a attacking outlet, he could have brought the ball forward and linked with jadson, who had a good game. The wide players along with jadson did well, with most of there good work being defensively, where they tracked there players well (FB’s and DM) but equally jadson created some good moves and the wide players looked dangerous on occasion (the first goal). But adriano could have done better holding up the ball, he looked good in behind, and had some good movement, but he could have held up the ball for the 3 midfielders to get forward, some shakhtar lacked.

Overall good game, with Porto deserving a win, and probably should have won by more. Shakhtar main problems were there two defensive mids, with neither actually creating attacks well, keep possession or break up attacks, as porto attacked out wide, and kept the ball in positions the two would move into.

Esteban on September 15, 2011 at 10:32 am

Very good, ZM, a nice article about a good game to watch. Porto deserved to win, but Shaktar will be a hard team to beat for APOEL – despite the sent off’s – if they want to take advantage of the results in this 1st round and bet in the 3 points in Ukraine.

Porto possession is very interesting, but they have to be more quick when they pass the ball from side to side and they need to try more vertical passes in the final third too. When they managed to do that, they’re a team to get to the final 4 of the competition.

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Pavel on September 18, 2011 at 12:24 pm

Review do not takes into account the following:
1. Strange judge’s decision in favor of Porto as to violations and in game situations;
2. You can not talk about poor discipline of Shakhtar, if both teams equally often violated the rules (17-Porto and 15-Shakhtar). Every red cards can be discussed and also there are several moments, which need to detail comment;
3. Porto advantage in tactics and the number of players expressed only in one goal after Rakitskiy’s red card. Do think it is not strange for command that have such advantage?
And finally – to write a tactical review of the game, the course is so strongly influenced by the judge, at least not right.